False alarms highlight weaknesses in national alert system

Weather junkie John Grosso knew it was highly unlikely a monster wave was barreling toward the Connecticut coast. Still, when a tsunami warning appeared out of the blue on his phone Tuesday, he felt a twinge of fear. His co-workers, who got the same alert, asked whether they should evacuate.

It turned out to be a false alarm, a computer glitch. The damage? An erosion of trust.

"Now I have to check every single time, God forbid, there's a tornado warning, a tsunami alert, pick your poison," said Grosso, 25, a social media manager from Stamford. "I have to look at it and go, 'Is it a test? Wa...